Unfortunately, I have been experiencing a lot of bad weather lately, which doesn’t quite accomodate the skiing of big days and new lines. After waiting out weather in Girdwood and then Valdez, Neil and I were able to treat our cabin fever with an amazingly long and wonderful day on Turnagain. 4 lines, 10,700′ of vertical, and many many miles of travel: Sunburst elevator shaft, traverse of Sunburst around the northeast side, up to Pastoral shoulder and down Santa Claus chute to the valley, up to Pastoral summit for a run down the north side to the base of Taylor Pass, over Taylor Pass to the top of Sunburst for a final run down the south face to the car. 10 hours of adventure 🙂

Me coming down the hourglass with Neil’s tracks in the foreground . . . sluff city!

Me on the way around Sunburst . . . Kickstep in the upper left corner.
Making progress 🙂
At the base of Santa Claus chute – I was super psyched to ski this line as I’ve looked at it for awhile. It was STEEP and has a pretty decent rollover in it. Butterfly city!
Overall, it was a great day of exploring a new area, wearing myself out, skiing great snow, bootpacking a horrible rock garden, and appreciating the many wonders of Turnagain Pass 🙂